
Slave arrivals from Africa to the Spanish Americas by region and century 1501-1866
Between the 16th and mid-19th centuries, almost 1.3 million slaves were transported from Africa and disembarked in the Spanish Americas. The most common destination for slaves in the Spanish Americas was Cuba, and over half of these 1.3 million slaves were transported to Cuba in the first half of the 19th century, as the sugarcane industry and international trade (particularly with the United States) boomed. The second most common region for slaves disembarking in the Spanish Americas was around other areas of the Caribbean, including the coasts of Central and South America, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries. A smaller number disembarked in the regions of Rio de la Plata (present-day Argentina and Uruguay) and Puerto Rico, while more than 150 thousand arrived in various other regions of the Spanish Americas, particularly in the first century of Spanish colonization.